2023 Elections: Okoroji calls on Nigerian artistes to take a stand

As the nation gallops towards the 2023 general elections, the community of the Nigerian creative industry has been called upon not to stand aloof and watch but be active participants in choosing the leadership of the country in the next political dispensation.

Chairman of the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), Nigeria’s biggest collective management organisation, Chief Tony Okoroji, gave the charge on Thursday, while addressing the nation as the society celebrates this year’s ‘No Music Day’.

‘No Music Day’, imagining a world without music, is a day set aside by COSON to commemorate the struggle by the music industry and draw attention to the plight of practitioners in reaping the fruit of their intellectual property.

“It has its foundation in that historic week in 2009, when Nigerian artistes of different shades embarked on a week-long hunger strike, staged in front of the National Theatre, Lagos. The hunger strike which was a result of the practitioner’s frustration with the devastating level of intellectual property banditry in Nigeria was the prelude to what has become known as No Music Day in Nigeria,” Chief Okoroji told RELIABLESOURCENG.COM in a chat.

Speaking on theme, Music in a Society on the Road to a Socio-Political Revolution, Okoroji, former president of the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN), called on artistes to take a firm position and stop the nation from sliding into anarchy and hopelessness.

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“We are saddened by the dangerous direction that our nation has been headed in recent times and the hopelessness that seems to engulf the citizens. We are saddened by the tribal and religious divisions, kidnappings, senseless killings, abductions, banditry, joblessness and the political and judicial rascality that sap the hope of our young people. 

“We cannot afford to give up as a nation despite the immense disappointments we have faced. We must no longer leave our nation solely in the hands of our political job men who have shown frightening incapacity to move Nigeria forward and who are driving us to the precipice.

“All of Nigeria’s creative people must today fully engage in preventing Nigeria from becoming a wasted land destroyed by hatred and suspicion and the narrow tribal ambitions of a hand-full of people,” Okoroji enjoined his members.

Further driving home the point, Okoroji specifically said: “On this ‘No Music Day’, we call on Nigeria’s musicians, actors, movie makers, writers, journalists, broadcasters, bloggers, intellectuals and all who operate in the creative space to deploy their talents and consciously work towards saving our people from impending doom. 

“In building a new and better nation, creative people must play a central role, stand up, take responsibility, work together, establish the strong advocacy necessary in every democracy to create positive change.”

READ: COSON announces N50m COVID-19 relief fund for musicians

The intellectual property activist said Nigerian creativity is manifest all over the globe in music, movies, literature, fashion, programming and similar creative endeavours.

“We are only asking for people who have the vision, the passion, and the understanding of the new world to be in the right positions to spark the fire and change the national narrative. We ask for an end to the period of the locust in Nigeria, when poor leadership without vision has held our country down.

“In marking ‘No Music Day’ 2022, we once again ask for a new Nigeria in which the people of wealth and influence are no longer those who have brazenly stolen the people’s wealth or scammed other people and tricked them out of what rightfully belongs to them. We ask for a Nigeria driven by knowledge and creativity.

“We want a nation where a creative songwriter can depend on his creativity and live well; a good performer does not have to worry about how to feed his family; a talented filmmaker or actor will not be burdened by where his next rent will come from; a gifted author can become a millionaire and does not have to sweat at the thought of his children’s school fees and a fashion designer with unique talent can be celebrated for his or her creativity.

“We ask for a Nigeria in which a great photographer can be a man of means; an architect does not also have to be a builder to earn commensurate income from his talent; an inventor can live off his invention and a creator of content can thrive from the deployment of his content.

“We earnestly ask for a Nigeria in which a lecturer is no longer ashamed to say that he teaches for a living. In other words, we demand a nation in which knowledge and creativity are celebrated,” Okoroji enunciated.

Chief Okoroji called on COSON members and all other groups to ensure that during the forthcoming general elections, they deploy their PVCs to elect individuals who respect the rights of creative people and the rule of law. According to him, that is the way to stop the Nigeria from sliding into “irreversible hopelessness”.